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Documentation
Short Description of the Alika Portal Publishing, Links and Content Management Solution
Alika Internet Technologies Inc. has developed an application that meets all the needs associated with the development, implementation, update and maintenance of "portal" Web sites that may contain thousands of links. The complete system is designed to effectively manage links, content pages, design elements and publishing.
The application has been designed using Lotus Notes/Domino R5 technology and features the following characteristics:
- integrates functions such as: a link checker, a complete metadata tool, a links library and a statistical reporting tool, all in a single, easy-to-manage Lotus Notes database;
- each link entry is created only once, and managed in a single location; the same link can be displayed in many locations throughout the Web site;
- link status, URL, title, author and metadata modifications are entered once in the link document; changes are reflected on all Web pages where this link exists;
- supports multi-language publishing and content creation (e.g. English, French, Spanish, Cree, Inuktitut, etc.);
- link documents and content pages can be added, modified and deleted, and then republished to the Web site quickly;
- handles publication to different servers such as development, production, demo, local, etc;
- automatically generates the HTML code for all the links, while allowing for flexibility if custom elements need to be added by the content manager;
- all the design elements and layout that make up the Web site are coded only once in configuration files and generated automatically - these include header, footer, navigation (table of contents), breadcrumbs, bullet graphics, etc.;
- "smart text" or custom tags are coded in the configuration files and used during the publishing process to allow for simplified publishing and content management;
- graphics can be attached directly in the Lotus Notes database for easy publishing to the Web site;
- individual documents or sections of the Web site can be password protected at the click of a button;
- handles automatic generation of metadata inside the header of the HTML pages.
 
Application System
The basic application system that is provided by Alika contains the following elements:
1) User-friendly Content Creation and Editing System
- Links are created in a single document in the database.
- Ability to publish links to multiple HTML pages (in a single operation).
- Link status, URL, title, author and metadata modifications need only be done once in the link document; changes are reflected on all Web pages where this link exists.
- Link descriptions can be entered in the database for display over the Web.
- A search capability for information management is available in each Lotus Notes database. Wild cards can be used to facilitate the search process for content managers.
2) Publishing process
- The content manager has the ability to publish single links and/or single documents to the Web. This process takes only a few seconds.
- A full publish of the Web site is required when elements are added in the table of contents and when the general look of the site is changed.
- The content manager has the ability to publish locally or to pre-production for quality review. After visually inspecting what has been published to the Web, the content manager will then publish the document(s) to production.
3) Link checker
- An integrated link checker tool is part of the Lotus Notes database.
- The link checker can be run on individual links, or on all the external links contained in the database.
- Retrieves data for broken and functioning URLs, including HTTP code for: status, last modified date, title, metadata information and header information.
- A set of views is available to assist the content manager.
- Redirect URLs can be identified and automatically corrected.
- Dead links are identified and can be automatically flagged in the database or removed from the Web site.
- Link titles/labels can be automatically populated from the title used on the Web site.
- E-mail addresses can be retrieved from the HTTPContent of the links and used as a contact list.
- Potentially inappropriate content, such as pornographic or racist sites, are automatically identified for potential action and verification by the content manager.
- The link checker can be scheduled to run nightly. A set of Lotus Notes views are automatically updated for the content manager to verify each morning.
4) Complete metadata tool
- Fully integrated with the content management system.
- Supports the metadata tagging of link and content pages.
- Integrated link checker function can harvest metadata from the source Web sites.
- Can be used to automatically generate metadata, without human intervention.
- The data can easily be inputted in each database via the harvesting process, importing of shared values, pick lists or via text fields.
- The content manager has the choice to use pre-populated metadata, input their own, or a mix of both.
- Supports different schemes (language, date, subject, etc.) and taxonomies (dc.subject).
- Pick lists are available to the content manager for faster and more accurate input of the data.
- Metadata can be assigned to individual links, or in bulk, based on URL patterns and criteria.
- Most Dublin Core metadata can be populated with this tool.
Central repository available:
- Metadata from different databases can be pushed to the central repository for storage, search and classification purposes.
- Each unique URL is stored only once in the central repository.
- If the same URL is being used by more than one database, metadata will be appended in the same URL record in the central repository database.
- Includes a unique sharing process which allows all the participating databases to pull metadata from the central repository to their own database of links. For example, if the same URL is contained in three databases, metadata that was inputted by the content managers will be displayed in all 3 databases, with an identification of what metadata has been assigned in each of the databases and where it originated. This feature is useful to ensure consistency in the tagging amongst many databases, and also to avoid duplicate work.
- Each database includes a mechanism to push and pull metadata to and from the central repository.
- Metadata for selected documents can be pushed to the central repository manually by the content manager; or on an automatic schedule.
5) Links library
- A number of custom views can be created based on the requirements of the client.
- These views are integrated in the link management database and can be easily accessed.
- A statistical reporting tool allows links to be categorized and statistical information presented in a single document.
6) Site map
- A complete site map is provided.
- The layout is determined in collaboration with the client's team, and based on the needs of the users.
- The site map is generated automatically from the Lotus Notes database, via a button, and does not have to be hard-coded by the Web site's content managers.
7) Documentation
- A complete easy-to-follow guide is available (see link above).
- Table of contents, graphics, screen capture and examples are included.
8) Other
- Easy management of the Web site design via configuration files.
- Integration of graphics and other type of files (Word, PowerPoint, PDF, etc.) for easy management.
- Ability to count the number of clicks on external links and generate a statistical report with the number of hits.
- Creation of script libraries for easier maintenance of shared sub-routines.
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